The San Francisco Film Society has a number of ongoing grantmaking programs, including their SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grant, Hearst Screenwriting Grant, Documentary Film Fund, and the Djerassi Fellowship. Now they've just announced that they'll be implementing two new initiatives for producers, the SFFS/KRF Producer Fellowship and the SFFS/KRF Producer Travel Fund.

These new initiatives will be underwritten by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation and are meant to provide support for "indie producers currently working on narrative feature projects via financial support, programs, mentorship, industry connections and access to a growing network of fellow filmmakers."

SFFS has already selected its first three fellows and the first round of these fellowships will take place September 1, 2014 through March 1, 2015. They will receive:

A $25,000 to $40,000 cash grant for living expenses.

An all-access placement in their FilmHouse Residency program.

One-on-one consultation with film industry experts from the Bay Area.

A variety of presentations and networking opportunities through SFFS.

All expenses paid 3-day networking trip to LA for meetings with industry professionals.

All expenses paid 5-day networking trip to Sundance Film Festival for meetings with industry professionals.

The three lucky winners of this first round of fellowships are:

Jonathan Duffy - A Bay Area filmmaker who recently produced Kat Candler’s 2014 Sundance Film Festival selection Hellion starring Aaron Paul and Juliette Lewis, which alsoreceived an SFFS/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant. Duffy also produced the award-winning film Pit Stop with writer/director Yen Tan, which premiered at Sundance in 2013 and was nominated for the 2014 Independent Spirit Awards’ John Cassavetes Award.

Márcia Nunes- Nunes just finished producing her first feature, Manos Sucias, winner of the Best New Narrative Director and second place Audience Award at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, two SFFS/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grants, and for which she became a Film Independent Producing Fellow. Previously, she was Associate Producer on Reaching for the Moon, directed by Academy Award–nominated Bruno Barreto and starring Miranda Otto, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2013. She was also the Production Coordinator for the Academy Award–nominated documentary Restrepo.

Laura Wagner- Wagner founded Bay Bridge Productions, which produces independent films, theater projects and video content for artists and theatrical productions. She produced the critically acclaimed feature film It Felt Like Love, which screened at both the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and International Film Festival Rotterdam and opened in theaters in 2014. Wagner also produced the feature film Memorial Day by Josh Fox (Gasland), which premiered at the CineVegas Film Festival and screened at the IFC Center, and was Associate Producer of the documentary John Leguizamo: Tales from a Ghetto Klown, which premiered on PBS.

The next round of SFFS/KRF Producer Fellowships will run from Fall 2015 to Spring 2016 and the full list of eligibility criteria and deadlines will be announced in the next few months. You can check out their Filmmaker 360 program for updates (we also highly encourage interested parties to get on their email list).

The SFFS/KRF Producer Travel Fund hasn't been implemented yet, but it will only be open to past winners of SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grants. Unfortunately, the Filmmaking Grants just closed to submissions for their next round of awards, but they'll open up again early next summer. These grants are around $300,000 are given to "narrative feature projects in any stage of production that will have significant economic or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community."